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Leonardo of Pisa or Leonardo Pisano (c. 1175 - 1250), also known as Fibonacci, was an Italian mathematician and is best known for the invention of the Fibonacci numbers and his role in the introduction to Europe of the modern positional decimal system for writing and manipulating numbers ( algorism).Leonardo's father Guilielmo (William) was nicknamed Bonacci ('good natured' or 'simple'). Leonardo was posthumously given the nickname Fibonacci (for filius Bonacci, son of Bonacci). William directed a trading post (by some accounts he was the consul for Pisa) in Bugia, North Africa (now Bejaia, Algeria), and as a young boy Leonardo traveled there to help him. There he learnt from the Arabic numeral system.
Perceiving that arithmetic with Arabic numerals is simpler and more efficient than with Roman numerals, Fibonacci travelled throughout the Mediterranean world to study under the leading Arab mathematicians of the time, returning around 1200. In 1202, at age 27, he published what he had learned in Liber AbaciLiber Abaci ( 1202) is an historic book on arithmetic by Leonardo of Pisa, known later by his nickname Fibonacci. Its title means The Book of Calculation''. In this work, Fibonacci introduced to Europe Arabic numerals which he had learned while travelling, or Book of Calculation. This book showed the practical importance of the new number system by applying it to commercial bookkeeping, conversion of weights and measures, the calculation of interests, money-changing, and numerous other applications. The book was well received throughout educated Europe and had a profound impact on European thought, although the use of decimal numerals did not become widespread until the invention of printing almost three centuries later. (See, for example, the 1482 Ptolemaeus map of the world printed by Lienhart Holle in Ulm.)
Leonardo became a guest of the Emperor Frederick IIFrederick II ( December 26, 1194 ( December 13, 1250), Holy Roman Emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was pretender to the title of King of the Romans from 1212, unopposed holder of that monarchy from 1215, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 until his deat, who enjoyed mathematics and science. In 1240Events Batu Khan and the Golden Horde sack the Ruthenian city of Kyiv Births Pope Benedict XI Deaths April 11 Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, also known as Llywelyn "The Great" Prince of Gwynedd Monarchs/Presidents Aragon James I King of Aragon and count of Barcelo the Republic of Pisa honoured Leonardo, under his alternative name of Leonardo Bigollo, by granting him a salary.
1 Important publications
- Liber Abaci (1202), a book on calculations.
- Practica Geometriae (1220), a compendium on geometryGeometry is the branch of mathematics dealing with spatial relationships. From experience, or possibly intuitively, people characterize space by certain fundamental qualities, which are termed axioms in geometry. Such axioms are insusceptible to proof, bu and trigonometryTrigonometry (Greek: "the measure of triangles") is a branch of mathematics dealing with angles, triangles and trigonometric functions such as sine and cosine . It has some relationship to geometry, though there is disagreement on exactly what that relati.
- Flos (1225), solutions to problems posed by Johannes of PalermoThis article is about Palermo in Sicily. There is also Palermo, Maine and Palermo, New York in the United States and Palermo, Buenos Aires in Argentina. Palermo (population 680,000) is the principal city and administrative seat of the autonomous region of
- Liber quadratorum, (The Book of Squares) on Diophantine problems, that is, problems involving Diophantine equationsIn mathematics, a Diophantine equation is an equation between two polynomials with integer coefficients with any number of unknowns. A Diophantine problem is given as a Diophantine equation, whose solutions are the possible assignments of integers for the.
- Di minor guisa (on commercial arithmetic; lost)
- Commentary on Book X of Euclid's Elements (lost)
